WoWInterface UI Manager - Windows

Please Note: This updater is being discontinued. We're allowing you to continue downloading this current version until the new one is ready, but please be aware that it may not work as well as could be hoped for.

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The WoWInterface UI Manager is a project that has been going on for nearly a year. With all the recent security problems at various addon sites, as well as the explicit targetting of executable updaters, as well as a few other issues we have delayed the production of this utility... until now.

After nearly six months of rigorous testing and in-house use, we are finally convinced of the security of the tool to present it to the public.

The WoWInterface UI Manager is a tool designed to help you keep track of installed addons, and assist in updating them quickly and easily. The UI Manager uses an internal API of WoWInterface so you can be sure it will continue to work even when site layout changes or if you choose a new skin.

Major Features

One-click Check allows the UI Manager to run through all of your addons quickly without any intervention. Any addons that do need to be updated will wait for your approval before continuing.

Multithreaded design allows for maximum use of your internet connection, processing complex compression for backup files while downloading other files at the same time.

Connection to the WoWInterface user database to retrieve your favorites list. This allows:

Quicker matching of already-installed addons to file IDs

Automatic install of missing favorites (after confirmation)

Automatic backups before every install

Before each install, the manager will create a restoration point which can later be used to revert to. It will include all configuration and saved information for the addon, as well as the Lua and XML scripts that ran it, so you can be sure you'll return to where you were.

Manual backups can be made (with or without Saved Variable data) of your entire Interface folder for easy restoration to a known-safe point.

Backups are compressed to help minimize space taken on the hard drive

An easy-to-use restoration manager can help you restore a backup, or restoration can be done easily without the manager by simply using the ZIP file found in the newly created "backups" folder.

All updates are compared against MD5 hashes before being installed to ensure security.

Download Choices
This is a portable program. This version is for Windows and includes only a Windows MSI Setup program. For a generic version (for Linux/Macintosh users), see this page.

Command line options:
The JAR (Java Executable Archive) file accepts command line arguments to assist with problem cases. If you are having trouble with the program, try running the following line at a command prompt before submitting any kind of bug information:

Code:

java -jar wowiupdater.jar --verbose

This will produce a file "verbose.log" instead of the default "error.log" in the program's directory to assist with debugging.

Other Important Stuff
Please keep in mind the following:

This program is released under the GNU General Public License v2. Your redistribution, modification, etc., is subject to these terms. For details, please see the file "COPYING" located inside the (a) ZIP file for the ZIP package, or (b) Installation directory for the Windows setup package.

This program is the work of one author, and is not small by any means. I'm sure there are bugs, and unfortunately I cannot catch them all. This is a BETA RELEASE of the application and you should be aware that things may go wrong (though I have taken every precaution I can that if something DOES go wrong, you can hopefully recover from it -- but I cannot guarantee that). See the following point:

As required by the GPL, it is important that I point out the following:

Code:

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Please feel free to list any problems here. I will do my best to update frequently and respond accordingly.

Regards,
-- Shirik

Version 0: Public BETA

0.2.6 (r1) - Initial Public Release

0.2.7 (not tagged) - Maintenance Release
- Fixed "Internal Error" occurring when a character that has never logged in has a SavedVariables folder on the computer
- Fixed "Internal Error" occurring when an addon has files placed at the root folder (due to the updater attempting to traverse backwards past root)
- Fixed "Unspecified I/O Error" occurring when explicit files are found outside of a folder (due to the updater attempting to place a dependency identifier in the file as if it were a folder)
- Fixed UTF-8 characters in addon metadata corrupting the XML data (server-side change only)
- Fixed non-alphanumeric characters in addon metadata corrupting the XML data (server-side change only)
- Resolved bug ID 4250
- Special thanks to:
+ Tem for countless hours being a guinea pig
+ ScythXIII, Seerah, Portalius, and mrruben5 for bug reports resulting in the above fixes

0.2.8 (not tagged) - Maintenance Release
- Fixed an issue where attempting to install a new addon to a corrupt, unexpected, or already-installed folder may result in an "Unspecified I/O error"
- Special thanks to Portalius for the bug report

0.2.9 (r8) - Correction Release (Windows only)
- Updated the Swing library to 1.0.3
- Fixed the setup package so that it references the correct library
- Special thanks to Dolby for pointing out the problem in the setup package

0.2.10 (r15) - Maintenance Release
- Fixed the setup package so that the shortcut placed on the desktop now has the correct icon (Windows only)
- Fixed an issue where users with more accounts than servers played would not be able to update any addons, receiving the error "Internal Error." (Resolves bug report #4259)
- Fixed an issue where not all accounts' SavedVariables files were being backed up in cases where the user had more servers than accounts played.
- Fixed an issue where files resident in the SavedVariables folder would be incorrectly detected as an account name, resulting in an "Internal Error" while backing up prior to updating an addon.
- Adjusted the AddOns folder constant to use correct capitalization for UNIX-based systems
- Special thanks to:
+ ScythXIII for the bug report, log files, and extreme patience while the bug was resolved
+ Thunder_Child for the bug report and log files and WTF data which lead to the isolation of the issue
+ Dolby for reporting the desktop icon issue

Originally posted by acapela yeah, this is biting me too right now. the WoW 3.0.2 patch process asked me to move my WoW install location; apparently Blizzard is anticipating difficulties under Vista with file system authorization in "C:\Program Files (x86)"... and i have no way to point the WoWI updater at the new location.

So, I ran into the same problem, all you need to do is go into your updater directory and open the file "config.wic" in notepad, emacs, or whatever. You'll see the pathname, just change it to whatever you want...

Originally posted by Silenia
No option to choose which directory I want to point it to.

yeah, this is biting me too right now. the WoW 3.0.2 patch process asked me to move my WoW install location; apparently Blizzard is anticipating difficulties under Vista with file system authorization in "C:\Program Files (x86)"... and i have no way to point the WoWI updater at the new location.

Ok, I figured I would give this one more try to see if it's any more user friendly than the first time I tried. Doesn't appear to be

Ran it for the first time, do not see any addons in the list.

No option to choose which directory I want to point it to. I have WoW installed on 2 different hard drives. One is strictly for testing new addons, playing with my own custom UI, and the PTR install. The other is for the one I actually play on when I'm not testing. I do not see any option to switch between the two installs.

No ignore feature so that I can ignore a particular addon so that my custom changes are not overwritten (skinner for example. I manually update this one).

The Install New feature is too limited. The only option I have is for my Favs. Where is the entire list of addons from the site? I have to first come here, choose a new addon as a fav, and then run the updator so it shows up? Id like to see the entire list of addons (not UI's, compilations, or guild packs) so that I can search for what I want and install it if I choose.

Would also like to see some feedback from you. There's not a peep since June and there's plenty of posts from your users here since then. Has this project been abandoned?

Color me lazy, impatient and picky.
I want to click one button to download then install all updates.
I also do my own manual updates periodically. I don't need another layer of backups - it just adds wasted time.

I love the updater, don't get me wrong. Those three things would make it a couple steps closer to perfect tho. The other updater I use is WowAceUpdater. One click updating, disable backups are two of the things that set it apart form WIU.

Originally posted by siggifox Does this work on windows vista? I doesn't work for me.

It works for me but I had to manually edit the config.wic file in the programs directory with wordpad to point it at where my WoW is installed. It's defaulted to look in the program files directory and doesn't seem to have any otpions as of yet to change the location.

Hello all,
I'm using Windows XP Professional SP3. I attempted to update the addons that were needing update, which was Auctioneer and Lighthead; it didn't want to do it, reporting a "Internal Error". I uninstalled WoWInterface Addon Updater and installed the most current version, same thing.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Below are the current errors from the Log file.

Pushes Java to 50% proc usage (100% of core 1), and runs abysmally slow. It can take up to 20 seconds for the program to fully display the resolve/confirm windows after clicking the button, for example. The entire program simply runs poorly for me.

I did a simple java program (I notice this one is in java too) that uses google to attempt and retrieve the "info number" (actually, i retrieved the whole URL and I copy pasted it) from all the addons I have (it also did a lot more than that).

If you're interested in the crawler code and parser, send me a PM or something, and I can send it over (well, after I comment it and all).

Or I could just add it to what you have here, but since you're re-working everything don't know if it'd be worth it.

Originally posted by Shirik Hi folks,

I realize I haven't posted a comment in a while so I figured I should let you know what's going on.

Due to the varying feature requests, etc., this program is undergoing a thorough rework to allow for many new features and tools. That's why you haven't seen an update for a while. I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

In the meantime, if any major issues arise, please feel free to find me on IRC at irc.freenode.net on channel #wowuidev -- it's the fastest way to find me.

Probably already suggested, but just in case it has not... Please incorporate the ability to REMOVE a addon from the interface as well. I try out a lot of different ones, and I have to manually go through and delete them from my addon folder, and then go through and remove them from my favorites on the site as well... Not that it's difficult, mind you... But it would be that much better a user experience if this were possible.
Another suggestion is to have the version of the addon listed in the interface as well, not just when there is a new version released. There's been times where an addon has been updated on another site - but I can't figure out what version my addon is at without going through and looking at all the files for the addon.
Thanks for reading... v

Originally posted by Shirik Hi folks,

I realize I haven't posted a comment in a while so I figured I should let you know what's going on.

Due to the varying feature requests, etc., this program is undergoing a thorough rework to allow for many new features and tools. That's why you haven't seen an update for a while. I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

In the meantime, if any major issues arise, please feel free to find me on IRC at irc.freenode.net on channel #wowuidev -- it's the fastest way to find me.

Based on a post on the Ace Forums, I decided to try this out. Had some problems and didn't get it to update at all:

1) Put in my userid and password from here, but it still didn't find my favorites, I had to manually add the addons I wanted. (Maybe the logon failed? No indication either way and the config file has the password encrypted altho the id looks right.)

2) The version on disk wasn't interpreted properly, I assume (like all updaters) that it can't discern the date of the addon from the disk, but only after doing a download of its own. It seemed to read some version info from the .toc, but even with up to date addons, it wanted to re-download them.

3) After verifying the version of the ones it didn't recognize (nice list of "I think this is the addon is that right?") it downloaded the zip files. But every one got Errors:

That was for one of my addons, but they all get it. It appears to be trying to do something with my Saved Variables but it's not quite clear what. My WoW and WDUIM install are on my J: drive, maybe there's a problem trying to find the Saved Vars?

4) After starting up the updater again, it again saw that my addons were out of date, but it didn't seem to realize that it had already downloaded the zip files it needed for the update. Might save time if it checked for that.

I like the look of the updater, but it's a concern that the author hasn't posted to this thread for over a month, and that there are other postings since with issues and no reply.